Tradesmen band together to help those in need during the cold winter months

Recent figures have shown that there has been a massive increase in the number of deaths in winter, especially among pensioners.

Official figures have revealed that there were around 34,300 ‘excess’ deaths last winter. This breaks down to eleven pensioners dying every single hour! When looking at previous years, this has increased by 39.5%. A whopping 9,720 more deaths than the year before!

When looking at the reasons behind these deaths, it was also found that the main cause was health conditions, which were made worse by the cold temperatures. And, recently, reports of people left freezing in their homes has hit the headlines.

For one heating engineer, seeing the number of people suffering in the cold at winter really hit home. Specifically, he saw a report in which a local pensioner had died due to pneumonia. This illness was made worse by the fact that she had a faulty boiler.

Therefore, as the owner of his own business, Stark Contracts, Chris wanted to do something to help. With the assistance of members of his team, he set out to help those in his local areas of Manchester and Hertfordshire.

With the help of apprentice Michael and heating engineer Sonny Moore, the team are offering their services to help make sure people have access to heat this Christmas.

Chris described: “I’ve heard about numerous people not being able to afford heating or get their heating fixed for a long time now.”

“I basically grew up around decisions in the household that we couldn’t put the heating on because the gas had run out, or just wasn’t working properly.”

“Therefore, I have a major soft spot for these elders who, I think, should get some form of free heating.”

“People make the mistake that just because old people own their houses, that they can afford to fix a boiler, and it just simply isn’t true.”

“The main thing that hit home was a story I read about a lady who lived in Hertfordshire.”

“She passed away from phenomena mainly due to a faulty boiler.”

“This just shouldn’t happen.”

“So I decided to use my firm to try and help as much as possible, with free call outs to try and fix things for people there and then.”

However, Chris and his team need a bit of help. Already having given away all of their electric heaters, they are looking for any donations possible. Alongside this, they would also like to raise awareness as to the services they are offering. If anyone in the Manchester or Hertfordshire areas needs some help this winter, contact Chris Goldie of Stark Contracts here or email him at contracts@starkcs.co.uk.

So what do you think of this? Have you heard any other stories like this? Let us know in the comments below.